Newly-promoted Ligue 1 side Evian TG ended the first half of the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 campaign with 22 points on the board after they beat highflying Montpellier Herault 4-2 in Week 19 of the Championnat.
In one of the biggest upsets of the Ligue 1 season so far, last season’s Ligue 2 champions Evian TG defeated on-song Montpellier Herault 4-2. Montpellier lead the new comers twice but failed to register a crucial win over the less-fancied side from Thonon
Gaillard. The result drops Montpellier to second place in the Ligue 1 standings after Paris Saint-Germain defeated AS Saint-Etienne 1-0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to return to the summit.
Beaten in their last two Ligue 1 encounters, Evian were the dominant force for most part of the first half. Some truly inspiring goalkeeping display by Montpellier custodian http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Geoffrey-Jourdren-c14538 kept the score to 0-0 at half-time.
However, Montpellier showed once again why they are serious title contenders when they scored the opening goal just two minutes after restart. Substitute Younes Belhanda scored the goal in only his second touch of the game. Though Evian keeper Stephan http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Anderson-c5565
saved a http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/John-Utaka-c18898 shot, the rebound was met by Belhanda and the Moroccan didn’t need a second invitation to score the goal.
However, five minutes after conceding, Evian showed real steel by equalising. The goal came from an ex-Montpellier man in Cedric http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barbosa-c7296. The veteran scored his sixth goal of the campaign after Saber Khlifa’s shot was blocked.
However, Montpellier were not over-awed by conceding so early. Two minutes later, La Paillade restored their advantage thanks to a great goal by Ligue 1’s topscorer Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman excellently controlled Belhanda’s through ball before chipping
the ball over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Denmark-c2884 international Andersen.
The Frenchman has now scored 13 goals this season.
However, a turnaround was simply waiting to happen. Tunisian international Khlifa equalised for Evian through a good cross by Guillaume Rippert. Three minutes later, Evian took a deserved lead 15 minutes from time through Brice Dja Djedje. The striker scored
another goal to make the score 4-2 much to the surprise of the travelling Montpellier fans.
The goals were certainly worth remembering for Brice whose brother Franck also scored two for OGC Nice in a 4-4 draw with Lille.
This was Evian’s fifth home win of the campaign and coach Bernard Casoni would certainly be happy knowing that his side should be in a good position to maintain their Ligue 1 status ahead of the second half of the campaign.
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